NATO beefs up forces along Afghan-Pakistan border

Kabul, May 19 (ANI): The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) on Monday strengthened troops along the Afghan border fearing the peace deals between Pakistan and the Taliban will lead to increase in militant attacks into Afghanistan, NATO’s commander in Afghanistan General Dan McNeill said. “Our analysis of the previous peace deals … is that when that dialogue is ongoing or when talks have been consummated in peace deals we see a spike in the untoward events that we experience on our side of the border,” the Dawn quoted, General McNeill, as saying. He said there has already been a great increase in militant attacks in eastern Afghanistan, the area closest to the parts of Pakistan where peace talks are underway. Mostly U.S. troops are responsible for helping Afghan forces patrol mountainous region. “We are going to have a bit of a plus-up in the U.S. sector,” McNeill said. He added, “Because we expect more activity there, we attune some of our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance processes and systems to focus where we anticipate things.” When asked whether his forces would carry out strikes against the Taliban inside Pakistan, McNeill said: “The NATO mandate goes only as far as the border, that’s as far as I’ll go.” (ANI)